Lutheran (ELCA) Ping!
Posted on 06/06/2007 2:03:50 PM PDT by lightman
Remarks of Pr Bradley Schmeling, Candidate for Bishop, ELCA Southeastern Synod, June 2, 2007
In a remarkable turn of events, Pastor Bradley Schmeling received sufficient votes for the office of bishop in the Southeastern Synod election that he was able to speak to the full assembly as a candidate. His speech is given below. While Bradley was not elected, a staunch ally, Pastor Julian Gordy of Tennessee will succeed Ron Warren as the bishop of the Southeastern Synod. He will take office on September 1, 2007.
Pr Bradley Schmeling's remarks, Bishop's Election, Third Ballot Southeastern Synod, ELCA Atlanta, Georgia June 2, 2007 9:00 am
There must be some Pentecost at the Sheraton Midtown Atlanta. When word gets out that my name appears on this list of seven, otherwise, holy ones, people are going to say, "Were they drunk?" But, alas, it is only 9:00 am.
I'm honored to be standing here. And I do want you to know that it is a blessing for me to serve as a pastor with you in this synod.
Not too long ago, a young man came to St John's, rang the doorbell, and asked to speak with the pastor. When I met with him, I listened to his story; a story that I had heard before about the struggle to get a job and find a place to stay in Atlanta. I'll confess to you that it was a busy day, and I was pressed for time, so I waited for a silence to jump into the conversation and say, "How can I help you?" I expected him to ask for money. But what he said was, "I don't want money. I just want someone to tell me that they love me." And he burst into tears.
So I held him and said, "Jesus loves you."
Jesus loves you.
I want our synod to be a better church than I was that day; a church that doesn't wait until people come knocking but is proactive; speaking words of love quickly and without hesitation, with compassion. I'm convinced that the gift of Lutheranism in the Southeast, our niche in the religious market, if you will, is that we are the church that is doggedly determined to begin every proclamation, every conversation with the grace of God. There are plenty of voices in our neighborhoods and in the pulpits down the street that are quick to judge and are harshly rigid in their moral certainty. I want people to know that Lutherans are the ones that say first "Jesus loves you."
Bishop Warren has rightfully pointed us to the thousands of people that are moving to the South. But there are also thousands who have left churches that are too small and shallow in their vision. I want our synod to be filled with even more congregations that seek out the lost; that genuinely welcome them home; churches that can tolerate debate about the difficult issues of poverty, war, and immigration; churches that pour themselves out for the poor in their neighborhoods, not counting the cost.
I also yearn for a church where two brothers in Christ, colleagues and friends, who both pray to serve faithfully and with integrity don't find themselves on the opposite side of the table in a disciplinary hearing room but side by side in the reign of God. I'm praying that the churchwide assembly will change the policy that precludes gay and lesbian pastors from serving in congregations that will call them, not because I think we've arrived at any kind of agreement or consensus, but because I want to level the mission field to make it fair for all those who are lured by the Spirit to announce "Jesus loves you."
I also want congregations to be empowered to call the pastor that will serve the needs of the gospel in their particular and unique place.
What a gift it could be if we could really figure out a way to live together faithfully in the midst of deep and painful disagreement.
Just as important, I think our synod should be a model of racial diversity. The ELCA is embarrassingly pale. We have the potential to be the synod that teaches the rest of the church how to deal with race. Let's change the statistics and become a more colorful place of engagement and respect.
I'll pray for you, Bishop Warren, in your retirement. Thank you for years of service to the church.
I have great hope for our synod and for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Thank you
In ELCA polity, any rostered Pastor may be nominated for Bishop in any of the 65 Synods. The list of nominees is severely culled by the second ballot. For Schmeling to make it to the third ballot shows that even noteriety gains the "name recognition" required to be a serious candidate for Bishop.
Lord, have mercy. Chirst, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
Homosexual agenda ping.
FYI.
The battle against the principalities and powers rages on.
Of course, the support has little to do with Grace for these lost souls and a lot to do with what will drive out the orthodox. It is a power grab.
My Godly grandparents’ church. They wouldn’t recognize it. I’m glad they’re gone.
So, Bishop Warren was retiring? He was not voted out?
Some discussion boards have speculated that it was precisely because of pending retirement that Bp. Warren filed the charges against Pr. Schmeling; knowing full well that the trial would light a fuse with the revisionist crowd.
Well, I guess if the UCC does, they would, too.
Kind of eerie that they picked an inverted five-pointed flower to surround the cross and heart.
Long ago it was customary for royalty and other important families to have a family coet of arms, which appeared on all their belongings. At the time of the Reformation, Luther began using a coat of arms to express the beliefs of his faith.
Luther said, "There should be a black cross in the red heart. The cross causes pain for us, yet it does not kill. Carrying a cross for ourselves and others promotes the vital energy of the heart." The cross in the very centre of this emblem reminds us of Jesus' death on the cross.
The heart around the cross is red. Luther said, "The cross should stand in the red heart, for from the heart we must believe, and from the heart comes our very life." Jesus said that the heart is purified when it contains the cross. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."
The rose is white. The heart should stand on a white rose to show that faith gives joy, comfort and peace, and it should be white because that is the colour of the angels and the joy which comes from heaven. The rose is the symbol of Jesus himself. He is called the 'Rose of Sharon.' Isaiah prophesied that at His coming, the desert shall blossom as a rose.
"The rose," said Luther, "should be placed in a sky-blue field, as this joy is already the beginning of heaven. We understand this as our hope of salvation." Blue is the colour that symbolises heaven. The psalmist said, "The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims His handiwork."
The blue field should be encircled by a golden ring because heavenly salvation endures forever and is valuable above all other possesions. The gold ray is the symbol of eternity. St John wrote, "The city was pure gold, clear as glass."
Thus we have Luther's coat of arms composed of five parts: the black cross, the red heart, the white rose, the blue field, and the gold circle. The coat of arms symolises one who, by God's grace, has received the gift of faith and seeks to obey Him.
While he was a professor at Wittenberg University, Luther devised this seal which he declared was meant to be "expressive of his theology. "The following explanation is the gist of a letter written to his friend, Herr Spangler, town clerk of Nuremberg, Germany.
THE first thing expressed in my seal is a cross, black, within the heart, to put me in mind that faith in Christ crucified saves us. "For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness."
Now, although the cross is black, mortified, and intended to cause pain, yet it does nor change the color of the heart, does not destroy nature- i.e., does not kill, but keeps alive. "For the just shall live by faith," -by faith in the Savior.
But this heart is fixed upon the center of a white rose, to show that faith causes joy, consolation and peace. The rose is white, not red, because white is the ideal color of all angels and blessed spirits.
This rose, moreover, is fixed in a sky-colored background, to denote that such joy of faith in the spirit is but an earnest beginning of heavenly joy to come, as anticipated and held by hope, though not yet revealed.
And around this groundbase is a golden ring, to signify that such bliss in heaven is endless, and more precious than all joys and treasures, since gold is the best and most precious metal. Christ, our dear Lord, He will give grace unto eternal life.
Amen
Maybe some of you would be interested in the Communion of Lutheran Catholics ( http://www.lutheransonline.com/clc )
Why is it that whenever some feminazi, gaysbian, or other heretic gets elected to some high church post such as Bishop, or even makes to to the third ballot, they call it a new “Pentecost”? (Katharine Jefferts-Schori did it, too.) It is more of an anti-Pentecost!!!!
That this is happening in the heart of my beloved Confederacy, and to my beloved Lutheran Church, is sad indeed!!!
“Pastor Brad” happens to be an attactive poster-boy for “gay” “inclusion”. That is why the bogus, poisonous “Lutherans Concerned” are pushing him to the forefront every chance they get. The feminazis and other “inclusionists” in the ELCA are going along with it. Watch out in Chicago in August!!!!
If a Southerner finds his or her Methodist/Baptist church too narrow, they could become Orthodox. It looks like a better alternative to the ELCA in the South:
http://southern-orthodoxy.blogspot.com/
Reading the latest news release from these Kool-aid dispensers it seems as though they are about to claim victory:
The results from voting on memorials at synod assemblies of the ELCA this spring have been nothing short of astounding. This past weekend, seven additional synods passed Goodsoil Memorial 1 that requests the Churchwide Assembly to direct that changes be made to the ELCA documents, Vision and Expectations and Definitions and Guidelines for Discipline. These changes will lead to the elimination of policies precluding rostered service for candidates in committed same-gender relationships . The total number of synods which have passed Memorial 1 now stands at 15. Our original goal was to reach 10–12 synods passing Memorial 1 on policy change.
And their theological take on it is absolutely blasphemous:
Thank you! These results are surely a testament to the lively work of the Holy Spirit in, through and among us.
A testament of the lively work of a spirit, alright, but not of God and surely not the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity!
Meaning he is pro revisionist?
Or that as a lame duck soon-to-be-retiree he simply did not believe that he had much personally at stake in the trial or its consequences and that the problems created would be someone else's mess to clean up.
These birds (as well as super-heretics like Jefferts-Schori) should hope that the Holy Spirit is NOT behind their seeming victories. Think about it!!!!
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